New director will be found for communications track

By MARY ANN ALBRIGHT

Gazette-Times reporter

Oregon State University is replacing the director of its new media communications program, according to university officials.

Joel Thierstein has served as director of new media communications since the program began in 2001.

Thierstein and Kay Schaffer, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, were still negotiating his future role in the program, and it was unclear Wednesday whether Thierstein would remain on the faculty as a professor.

"I think it's best for the program. I think it's best for everyone involved," Schaffer said.

OSU will appoint an interim director. The university will begin a search for Thierstein's replacement during fall term, said Todd Simmons, OSU assistant vice president for university advancement.

Thierstein could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

OSU launched its new media communications program with much fanfare in 2001, though the first courses weren't offered until 2003.

Since its inception, however, the program has been caught in the university's budget squeeze. Although OSU's administration has consistently supported the program, budget dollars have been slow to follow and the program still relies on a variety of part-time adjunct instructors to teach many of its classes.

Given the lack of funding for the upcoming school year, Thierstein even considered cutting all courses taught by the adjunct instructors, about 10 classes, and limiting classes to those offered by the program's three core faculty members, according to a memo sent to the program's advisory board

earlier this summer.

Even with the change of director, Schaffer said, students should be able to enroll in the classes they had planned on taking this year.

In some ways new media communications was intended to rejuvenate journalism studies on campus a decade after the technical journalism program had been eliminated due to budget cuts. However, the focus of the program has been educating students in the use of new technology to share information with media consumers.

The program stresses storytelling through various media, including video games, the Internet, television, newspapers and movies.

New media communications is currently an option within the liberal studies major, though students and faculty in the program had been hopeful that it would soon become a full-fledged major. About 400 students take classes through the program, officials noted.

There are four minors available within OSU's new media communications program - new media, multimedia, print media and telemedia.

At a glance

To learn more about OSU's New Media Communications program, see http://oregonstate.edu/cla/nmc.

Mary Ann Albright can be reached at maryann.albright@lee.net or 758-9518.